Scotland Euro 2024 squad: Door opens to old and new faces and the James Tavernier eligibility question

How injuries and squad size increase could impact Steve Clarke’s selection for Germany

Steve Clarke does not come across as someone it would be advisable to cross. So it is surprising that so many of his players have disobeyed the Scotland manager in recent weeks.

“Just do what you have to do and make sure you stay fit” was the gist of his message to his players when they departed after the recent disappointments against the Netherlands and Northern Ireland. Sadly, several have rebelled, although it’s not Jimmy Johnstone-rowing-into-the-Ayrshire-sunset (or was it sunrise?) scale mischief. No fault can be levelled at the likes of Nathan Patterson and Lewis Ferguson, with the former facing a race against time to be fit for Euro 2024 after hamstring surgery and the latter already ruled out due to an ACL rupture.

Such blamelessness also applies to Aaron Hickey, Stuart Armstrong, Grant Hanley, Billy Gilmour, Ryan Jack and Jacob Brown, who are all facing their own fitness issues. Amid this sense of players dropping like flies comes the news that Uefa are set to ratify an increase in squad size at this summer’s finals.

Liam Palmer was last called up by Scotland three years ago but could come back into the reckoning due to injuries at right-wing back. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

Having been the victim of a squad culling exercise in the run-up to Italia 90, one imagines Clarke will have been fully supportive of plans, expected to be ratified by the end of this week, to bump up the limit from 23 to 26 players, as it was at Euro 2020. The quota was originally reduced to 23, as it had been in several previous European Championships and World Cups prior to the Covid outbreak, which is when Uefa and Fifa agreed to an increase.

Does it represent a cure for a headache? It certainly helps reduce the number of difficult conversations Clarke might have been expected to have with players such as Kenny McLean and John Souttar, judged by many to be in or around the initial cut off point. They will surely now be on the plane – fitness permitting. Indeed, given the extent of Scotland’s current injury list, the task of filling these extra places is perhaps giving Clarke a more obvious cause to fret.

Are there even enough bona fide international class players to reach this new total? Clarke would like to believe that he is selecting the creme de la creme and were it not for an outbreak of injuries, he would have been. Now, however, it could be more a case of make do and mend.

There are some glaring holes appearing, at right back in particular. Clarke is at least well-resourced for midfielders although he won’t want to lose anyone else, with Gilmour and Armstrong currently sidelined. At least their injuries are not reckoned to be tournament threatening.

Ross McCrorie was called up by Steve Clarke last summer but remains uncapped for Scotland at senior level. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

Still, Clarke's worst fears are being realised and then some.

“It usually happens that you lose two players to injury before the tournament. We lost Ryan Jack and Kenny McLean last time (at Euro 2020),” he said in January. “On average that’s what happens, fingers crossed it doesn’t happen this time and then I just have to make the big calls.”

At Italia ‘90, when Clarke the player missed out, the squad limit was set at just 22. Although he travelled to Italy for a pre-tournament trip while also playing in a B international v Yugoslavia in March, he learned the news that he had been excluded at the start of May. He was in good company with those such as Brian McClair, Pat Nevin and Robert Fleck also missing out, although the last named was called up nearer the time due to an injury to Davie Cooper. Fleck actually ended up making his competitive debut at the finals.

Someone could be on course to do this in Germany if things don't improve on the injury front. Perhaps Clarke may decide to reacquaint himself with some old friends? It’s likely he will bring another striker over and above the three regarded as guaranteed picks: Che Adams, Lyndon Dykes and Lawrence Shankland.

Fifa's five-year residency rule would allow James Tavernier to represent Scotland were it not for a Home Nations pact which makes him ineligible. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

It would be nice to think the fit again Kevin Nisbet might be handed some playing time in the two games Millwall have left before the end of the season. Then there’s Under-21 striker Tommy Conway, who scored twice for Bristol City a couple of weeks ago in their 5-0 win over Blackburn Rovers.

Indeed, a visit to the West Country might prove profitable for Clarke, who could kill two birds with one stone in the perhaps unlikely surroundings of Ashton Gate stadium.

Ross McCrorie’s return to action cannot have passed unnoticed as Clarke considers solutions to his biggest problem at present – right wing back. The former Aberdeen and Rangers player has played 20 times since his comeback in January for a club sitting comfortably mid-table in the Championship and has been deployed mostly at right wing back. He is – as yet – uncapped.

It's likely Clarke has been scrambling for scouting reports on his form, if he hasn't already watched him himself. If he hasn’t – and is hoping to – then he will need to be quick. Bristol City have just two games left, against Rotherham this weekend and Stoke City seven days later.

McCrorie is advised to hold off booking his summer holiday amid such an uncertain Scotland picture. So, too, perhaps Liam Palmer. Come again? Who?

Palmer is something of a forgotten man in Scotland terms although it’s not that long – just over three years – since he filled the right back/right wing back slot for Scotland. Indeed, Clarke lamented having to exclude him from the Euro 2020 squad following Patterson’s emergence.

Seven of the Sheffield Wednesday veteran’s eight caps were won under Clarke. Now 32, he remains a Sheffield Wednesday stalwart at right back, right centre back and even sometimes in midfield, recently racking up his 433rd appearance for the Owls (Barry Bannan played his 400th game for the club in the same match v Blackburn Rovers).

There are other, Scottish-based options such as Mr Dependable Nicky Devlin at Aberdeen and, of course, Stephen O’Donnell at Motherwell, who started at right wing back in all three of Scotland’s games when they were last at a major finals.

More flippantly, Clarke may rue a gentleman’s agreement dating back to his own playing days. FIFA criteria rules that a player only has to live in a country for five years in order to be eligible to represent its national team. However, a Home Nations' pact prevents managers picking players without at least one grandparent who was born in that country.

This arrangement saw a significant tweak in 2010 due to the Andrew Driver affair, with Scotland keen to utilise the talents of the Hearts winger. He grew up in North Berwick but had no direct Scottish bloodline. The Home Nations agreed to open selection to those who had at least five years schooling in the country.

It still doesn’t help in the case of James Tavernier, whose nine-year stay in Scotland has not included five years or even five terms at Govan High school. If only, perhaps. Andy Robertson and Tavernier as wing-backs might give Germany something to think about. It would certainly help when it came to penalties.